Best Ever Albums

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Sun, 7 Mar 2021 10:53:51 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 03/07/2021 15:53

TiggaTrigga wrote:

Looking at your hip-hop album placements from your overall rock & jazz albums list, I noticed there were some that you didn't include that Scaruffi thinks highly of (7.0 or above, for the most part). So I decided to list them here, some of which are even 7.5s (Tetsuo & Youth, El Negro, Lil Peep Part One, The Unseen, Black Ben Carson) and even a freaking 8.0 (Phonemenomicon). I honestly think I fit every single hip-hop artist Scaruffi has given at least a 7.0 to in here.

If I'm understanding right, you seem to currently be focused on visual art analysis, so hip-hop isn't on your mind right now, lol. But I thought you'd find this interesting, regardless.

LL Cool J - Radio
Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
The Beatnigs - The Beatnigs
MC Lyte - Lyte as a Rock
Jungle Brothers - Done by the Forces of Nature
Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Consolidated - The Myth Of Rock
Stetsasonic - Blood, Sweat & No Tears
Ice-T - O.G. - Original Gangster
The Goats - Tricks of the Shade
Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
Digable Planets - Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space)
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Guru - Jazzmatazz Volume 1
Spectre - The Illness
The Roots - Do You Want More?
Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike
Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
Company Flow - Little Johnny From The Hospitul
Aesop Rock - Float
Quasimoto - The Unseen
N*E*R*D - Fly Or Die
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter II
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
The-Dream - Love/Hate
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Clams Casino - Instrumentals
Danny Brown - XXX
Killer Mike - RAP Music
Signor Benedick the Moor - El Negro
Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
Thaiboy Digital - Tiger
Chief Keef - Back From The Dead 2
LIL PEEP - LiL PEEP PART ONE
Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt
Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
Impossible Nothing - Phonemenomicon
JPEGMAFIA - Black Ben Carson
Young Thug - No, My Name is JEFFERY
Lil Peep & Lil Tracy - CASTLES II
xxxtentacion - ?
clipping. - There Existed An Addiction To Blood
ECCO2k - E
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
LustSickPuppy - Cosmic Brownie

(Personally I think The Money Store by Death Grips could be a 7)

TiggaTrigga,

I actually have a more updated "hip hop etc" genre list. I merged all of the genre lists onto a single thread and am not updating the older, individual ones any more. So I'll reply from that one...

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

TiggaTrigga — Sat, 6 Mar 2021 20:19:23 GMT

Author: TiggaTrigga

Posted: 03/07/2021 01:19

Looking at your hip-hop album placements from your overall rock & jazz albums list, I noticed there were some that you didn't include that Scaruffi thinks highly of (7.0 or above, for the most part). So I decided to list them here, some of which are even 7.5s (Tetsuo & Youth, El Negro, Lil Peep Part One, The Unseen, Black Ben Carson) and even a freaking 8.0 (Phonemenomicon). I honestly think I fit every single hip-hop artist Scaruffi has given at least a 7.0 to in here.

If I'm understanding right, you seem to currently be focused on visual art analysis, so hip-hop isn't on your mind right now, lol. But I thought you'd find this interesting, regardless.

LL Cool J - Radio
Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
The Beatnigs - The Beatnigs
MC Lyte - Lyte as a Rock
Jungle Brothers - Done by the Forces of Nature
Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Consolidated - The Myth Of Rock
Stetsasonic - Blood, Sweat & No Tears
Ice-T - O.G. - Original Gangster
The Goats - Tricks of the Shade
Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
Digable Planets - Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space)
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Guru - Jazzmatazz Volume 1
Spectre - The Illness
The Roots - Do You Want More?
Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike
Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
Company Flow - Little Johnny From The Hospitul
Aesop Rock - Float
Quasimoto - The Unseen
N*E*R*D - Fly Or Die
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe
Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter II
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
The-Dream - Love/Hate
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Clams Casino - Instrumentals
Danny Brown - XXX
Killer Mike - RAP Music
Signor Benedick the Moor - El Negro
Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
Thaiboy Digital - Tiger
Chief Keef - Back From The Dead 2
LIL PEEP - LiL PEEP PART ONE
Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt
Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
Impossible Nothing - Phonemenomicon
JPEGMAFIA - Black Ben Carson
Young Thug - No, My Name is JEFFERY
Lil Peep & Lil Tracy - CASTLES II
xxxtentacion - ?
clipping. - There Existed An Addiction To Blood
ECCO2k - E
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
LustSickPuppy - Cosmic Brownie

(Personally I think The Money Store by Death Grips could be a 7)

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Wed, 22 May 2019 23:17:34 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 05/23/2019 03:17

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Thanks for the recs 😄 Ive heard his more famous/well known songs but none of his full albums. He seems like a sincere, talented, relatively diverse and soulful artist but I don't recall anything that stood out that would make him a priority to check out, given my criteria. You/anyone is welcome to influence me otherwise with some analysis/key points that mark his work as significant (emotionally, conceptually, creatively... in line or superior to Prince/Marvin Gaye/Stevie Wonder's very best works) but there is only so much time in a day and efficiency of what I check out is pretty essential for me. Doesn't mean I won't eventually get to him some day...

To start off with some analysis part - although I don't like them that much - Pitchfork has favorably reviewed all three of them. Mostly Voodoo, which they gave a perfect 10.0 score to, is one of my all-time favorite reviews by the site:

Brown Sugar Review by Pitchfork
Voodoo Review by Pitchfork
Black Messiah Review by Pitchfork

Secondly, the reviews on RYM are fine too.
Brown Sugar on RYM
Voodoo on RYM
Black Messiah on RYM
.
I always say to folks who haven't listened to him "If you don't have time to listen to some D'Angelo, you don't have time for anything"

Thank you for all that. I'll take the salient points from those links/reviews into consideration when I get around to him. Pitchfork has excellent writers, though as you can probably guess, a Pitchfork 10, while probably better on avg than most mainstream sources, does not mean all that much to me except in a general sense that it's likely to represent a worthwhile album or better. Their "10" is still way too lenient in relation to my criteria for me to take it all that seriously ... as in: Beethoven's 9th, Sistine Chapel being the only artistic accomplishments at that level, along with a select few that have approached it and might also be 9.8+: Mahler's 9th, Bach Mass in B Minor... Pitchfork has their own scale where a 10 seems to mean something on the order of "this is a good or very good, consistent album with no obvious flaws" ... which on avg turns out to be about a 6.5 or 7 on my scale and of which there are hundreds of examples that the majority of competent-to-very competent, good-to-excellent artists have accomplished, given the chance. I'll check out the RYM ones too as sometimes there's some really good jewels of insight in there.

I found an explanation of their rating system
If you're interested, this was the old explanation:

10.0: Essential
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible

Right now, think of the following basic code for how significant a rating is for a newly-released album these days:

* Ratings above 9.4 have seldom been given to anything but reissues over the past few years.
* 9.0-9.4 - Sure to be album of the year material
* 8.0-8.9 - High endorsement, but much higher still if it comes with Best New Music; there is no particular cut-off point, I've seen albums with ratings as low as 8.3 get Best New Music, but some 8.5ers don't get it. I don't know the criteria for selecting Best New Music.
* 7.0-7.9 - Decent endorsement
* 6.0-6.9 - An "ehh" review; at this point the review starts to hurt an album's prospective sales if it's pitched at a "hipster" audience
* 4.0-5.9 - Standard negative review
* below 4.0 - A real slating

- In all honesty, I don't really like Pitchfork outside of their favorable reviews. They always tend to make the reader feel stupid if they don't agree with their pseudo-intellectual point of view.
In their favorable reviews (10.0-9.5 - ish), they actually focus more on the music, the circumstances and situations behind the record, and initial profound layers. Their reviews of D'Angelo three LPs is a solid example of that.

In terms of that scale, generally every music site is generous when it comes to high-rating albums - especially AllMusic. But for me (at least), it's more the review than the rating that'll get me excited for an album.

Thank you, their old one is defined pretty similar to mine (sort of...) but falls pretty far away from it in the 7s and 8s which sound more like 6s to 6.5s to me... all the high quality of theirs is in a small concentration, roughly 8.5 on up, whereas my parallel to that would be 6.5 or 7 on up and much more defined in the echelons between that and 10... I don't think they consider depth as strongly as they should in making those determinations (which would protect many of their 9s, 9.5s,10s and so on from looking pretty overrated months or years later compared to the few and far between that hold up to the lense of history). The site also seems to have a penchant for adding the non-musical cultural/media impact of the star/artist into their ratings -- in other words they get "hyped" by an artist and this colors their ratings too much ... which of course "wears off" from facilitating the musical impact sooner or later... This used to be more geared to indie hype/cred (back in the early 2000s when I read the site fairly often) and theyd give these undeservedly high ratings to artists that were ultra indie, determined to find the next Pavement/Guided By Voices/NMH/Pixies before anyone else (or something like that)... Now it seems to have transferred to media culture/poptimism etc. Pretty much same phenomena, but a different angle... Probably a byproduct of being part of it and around it themselves as they got bigger and more mainstream.

Or at least thats how the site seems these days at a glance. I have hardly checked it out over the last 10+ years so my hunch may be inaccurate or partially so.

Regardless, they're just way more lenient when rating super high. In terms of ratings and evaluations, it is much more valuable to me if someone can discern the difference between an artist such as what I presume D'Angelo to be ("unofficially") with some good albums, and someone like Miles Davis with (among others) a mind-boggling masterpiece like Bitches Brew (replete with funk/soul/jazz-rock fusion/psychedelia leanings) or ... Gershwin's operatic masterpiece Porgy & Bess (even if its portrayals of African-American/Black culture were more "theatrical" than "socially-realistic")... or Mingus' ballet/third stream jazz masterpiece (with lots of soul/blues/gospel and spirituals leanings) Black Saint and the Sinner Lady ...etc... It is (imo) a strong (maybe not "objective") indication that the person is an active, detailed and discerning listener, than (for instance) someone that calls every good album a masterpiece and lumps all those "10s" together despite a very wide discrepancy in quality between the 10s that are really 6.5s and 7s and the 10s that are 8s, 9s and above.

Imo...

^^^ Imo...

^^^In my opinion, I think... 🤣

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

Skinny — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:46:24 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 05/22/2019 20:46

"Salient"

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Wed, 22 May 2019 15:40:15 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 05/22/2019 19:40

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Wed, 22 May 2019 15:25:46 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 05/22/2019 19:25

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Tue, 21 May 2019 15:39:58 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 05/21/2019 19:39

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Tue, 21 May 2019 15:19:47 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 05/21/2019 19:19

raadfactoryxny wrote:

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Tue, 21 May 2019 13:51:41 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 05/21/2019 17:51

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Voodoo by D'Angelo

Black Messiah by D'Angelo And The Vanguard

What's your take on these innovative, consistent, conceptual, exceptionally great albums?

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Tue, 21 May 2019 11:08:42 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 05/21/2019 15:08

Skinny wrote:

This is the most tonedeaf list of hip-hop, soul, funk, and R'n'B imaginable.

Glad your comment found a home �'�

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Tue, 21 May 2019 11:07:42 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 05/21/2019 15:07

baystateoftheart wrote:

Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version by Ol' Dirty Bastard

Any opinions on this album? His often frenetic, surreal take on hip-hop made me think you might find some value.

EDIT: I just looked up a certain someone's opinion to see if that would improve my pitch.

Scaruffi wrote:

one of the most creative albums of the mid 1990s

Thanks 😄

It has a shot. I've heard it before but it's been forever ... and Ive never rated it.

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

Skinny — Tue, 21 May 2019 06:03:45 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 05/21/2019 10:03

This is the most tonedeaf list of hip-hop, soul, funk, and R'n'B imaginable.

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Tue, 21 May 2019 05:12:10 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 05/21/2019 09:12

baystateoftheart wrote:

Scaruffi wrote:

one of the most creative albums of the mid 1990s

Shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy yam, shimmy yay...

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

baystateoftheart — Mon, 20 May 2019 17:28:36 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 05/20/2019 21:28

Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version by Ol' Dirty Bastard

Any opinions on this album? His often frenetic, surreal take on hip-hop made me think you might find some value.

EDIT: I just looked up a certain someone's opinion to see if that would improve my pitch.

Scaruffi wrote:

one of the most creative albums of the mid 1990s

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:48:42 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 02/19/2019 16:48

AfterHours wrote:

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

8.5/10
Les Stances a Sophie – Art Ensemble of Chicago (1970)
We Insist! Freedom Now Suite - Max Roach (1960)

8/10
Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones (1979)
Purple Rain - Prince (1984)
It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy (1988)
Frizzle Fry - Primus (1990)
Friendly as a Hand Grenade - Tackhead (1989)

7.5/10
The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monae (2010)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West (2010)
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (1971)
Eli And The 13th Confession - Laura Nyro (1968)
Clouddead - Clouddead (2001)
The Cold Vein - Cannibal Ox (2005)
The College Dropout - Kanye West (2004)
The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem (2000)
The Reality of My Surroundings - Fishbone (1991)
Smoke In The Shadows - Lydia Lunch (2004)
Endtroducing - DJ Shadow (1996)
Buy - Contortions (1979)
Glee - Bran Van 3000 (1998)
Untitled - Dalek (2010)
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (1992)
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill (1998)

7/10
One Nation Under A Groove - Funkadelic (1978)
Remain in Light - Talking Heads (1980)
Negro Necro Nekros - Dalek (1998)
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic (1971)
Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy (1990)
More Than a New Discovery (aka "The First Songs") - Laura Nyro (1967)
Moondance - Van Morrison (1970)
Aquemini - Outkast (1998)
Baduism - Erykah Badu (1997)
Madvilliany - Madvillian (2004)
Sign O' the Times - Prince (1987)
Paul's Boutique - Beastie Boys (1989)
No Now - Clarence Clarity (2015)
The Chronic - Dr. Dre (1992)
To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015)
There's A Riot Goin' On - Sly & The Family Stone (1971)
New Amerykah Part One - 4th World War - Erykah Badu (2008)
Funkentelechy Vs The Placebo Syndrome - Parliament (1977)
Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder (1976)
Innervisions - Stevie Wonder (1973)
Stand! - Sly & The Family Stone (1969)
New York Tendaberry - Laura Nyro (1969)
Personal Journals - Sage Francis (2002)
The Score - The Fugees (1996)
Boy in Da Corner - Dizzee Rascal (2003)
3 Feet High and Rising - De La Soul (1989)
Doggystyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg (1993)
Late Registration - Kanye West (2005)
Since I Left You - Avalanches (2000)
Beware (The Funk is Everywhere) - Afrika Bambaataa (1986)
Paid in Full - Eric B & Rakim (1987)
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast (2003)
Reasonable Doubt - Jay-Z (1996)
On The Corner - Miles Davis (1972)
Illmatic - Nas (1994)
Ready to Die - Notorious B.I.G (1994)
Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A (1988)
Channel Orange - Frank Ocean (2012)
Vivid - Living Colour (1988)

NOTE: The 7/10 section is especially incomplete (mainly what I've revisited recently enough to have rated with confidence). The 7.5 section is probably missing some entries as well. Recommendations welcome (I tend to be stricter than most, so just try not to take too much offense if I disagree!).

Awesome awesome albums. Underlines are my favorites.

Right on 😄 As a Michael Jackson SuperFan you owe yourself those Stevie Wonder albums (plus Talking Book and Music of My Mind).

Oh, Stevie Wonder's great too. And he's funny (especially the time when he gave a grammy to Sheeran, I laugh everytime I see the clip).

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 22:16:00 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 02/19/2019 03:16

raadfactoryxny wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

Awesome awesome albums. Underlines are my favorites.

Right on 😄 As a Michael Jackson SuperFan you owe yourself those Stevie Wonder albums (plus Talking Book and Music of My Mind).

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

DommeDamian — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 09:39:38 GMT

Author: DommeDamian

Posted: 02/18/2019 14:39

AfterHours wrote:

Awesome awesome albums. Underlines are my favorites.

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

RoundTheBend — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 21:24:02 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 07/11/2018 01:24

AfterHours wrote:

sethmadsen wrote:

Care to enter your top 10 (not hip-hop though) R&B/Soul/Funk entries into the competition?

https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20369

Sure! Though some of my selections might be considered borderline or too much an amalgam of genres to fit definitively into your requirements, so if thats the case, feel free to let me know what does qualify from my list and Ill revise accordingly by simply choosing the next entry down until I have 10 fitting selections.

Thanks!

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

AfterHours — Mon, 9 Jul 2018 14:19:28 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 07/09/2018 18:19

sethmadsen wrote:

Care to enter your top 10 (not hip-hop though) R&B/Soul/Funk entries into the competition?

https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20369

Re: Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums

RoundTheBend — Mon, 9 Jul 2018 12:01:56 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 07/09/2018 16:01

Care to enter your top 10 (not hip-hop though) R&B/Soul/Funk entries into the competition?

https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20369